company:dicle

Turks usher in 2016 with hike in electricity prices
▻http://www.todayszaman.com/business_turks-usher-in-2016-with-hike-in-electricity-prices_408534.htm

Effective as of Friday, the hike will cover the costs of new infrastructural investments that will be made by power distribution companies during the year, according to the media.

“Distribution companies are responsible for [any malfunction] at grid circuits and electricity meters installed at doorsteps. … The EPDK will ensure the extra burden will be returned to consumers as [more quality] service,” reports cited energy officials as saying.

The latest hike came at a time when flaws in recently privatized national electricity network came under the spotlight. According to data from the Federation of Consumer Unions (TBF), planned power cuts made by the 21 distribution companies across Turkey totaled 72,250 hours in November alone. The number of hours in unplanned outages, however, is unknown.

The government privatized companies that supply electricity to the national grid in Turkey in September 2013 in a bid to reduce unit electricity prices as well as ensure energy security. But flaws in distribution have been common since then.

“They do not invest. There is neither maintenance nor inspection. Public institutions should immediately launch strict inspections. But power companies have been complaining all the time recently,” Hüseyin Yeşil, the president of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers (EMO), earlier told Today’s Zaman.

Electricity theft here to stay

A recent alteration that was made in energy market codes, however, will seemingly ensure the persistence of illegal electricity use across the country.

According to an amendment that entered into force on the last day of 2015, distribution companies that sustained more illegal electricity consumption than the national average in 2014 will be regarded as a “large-loss company” until 2025.

Commenting on the new regulation, EMO head Yeşil said: “This change says ‘well done’ to those companies with high illegal electricity records and creates new options for them.”

Abdullah Tivnikli, a businessman known for his close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said early this year he wants to exit his partnership with the Dicle Electricity Distribution (DEDAŞ) in order to avoid further losses due to the illegal use of electricity in the area the company operates in. “I have to leave this partnership, or we will be forced to have blackouts in the region to compensate for our losses,” Tivnikli said back then

#électricité #Turquie #Privatisation

Erdoğan plays politics with illegal electricity usage
▻http://www.todayszaman.com/business_erdogan-plays-politics-with-illegal-electricity-usage_396347.h

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears to have been manipulating the much-debated problem of illegal electricity usage in the eastern part of Turkey, a controversial issue frequently on the public agenda after video recordings revealed clandestine ties between distribution companies and the government in 2014.

In a regular meeting with muhtars (headmen) at the presidential palace on Wednesday, Erdoğan said the government has been expending diligent efforts to overcome security problems in the eastern provinces; however, it suffers financial losses from illegal electricity usage, a common headache for distribution companies in the region.

There are nearly 37 million subscribers registered with energy companies in Turkey paying approximately TL 70 billion in electricity bills ?????, of which an amount of between TL 5 million and TL 6 million each year is surcharged from those who pay their bills regularly. Yet the illegal usage rate in some areas is much higher than in others.

Abdullah Tivnikli, a businessman known for his close ties to Erdoğan, said early in January that he wants to exit his partnership with Dicle Electricity Distribution (DEDAŞ) — which serves 1.5 million subscribers in the Southeast — in order to avoid further losses due to widespread illegal use of electricity in the area in which the company operates. After the revelation of massive corruption investigations late in 2013, Tivnikli was allegedly heard asking then-Deputy Undersecretary in the Prime Ministry İbrahim Kalın for reimbursement from the government for subscribers’ unpaid electricity bills in a voice recording leaked on YouTube in April 2014.

Erdoğan seems to have aimed at relieving Tivnikli’s concerns as he addressed unpaid electricity bills immediately after his talk about security woes.

“They [Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)] dig up the streets, lay mines along the roads and threaten people, set fire to their automobiles and bar highway and dam construction [in the eastern provinces]. Can you imagine? What will these reservoirs be for? Collecting water to irrigate dry areas… They generate electricity, if they are hydroelectric power plants. [When the PKK prevents dam construction] the burden will be on the government, and they will say ‘the state does not provide electricity for us.’ They are the ones who cut the electricity supply. The price of the electricity, unfortunately, is not paid as you may probably know,” Erdoğan said.

According to another voice recording leaked on Twitter, also in April of last year, Kalın told Tivnikli that the prime minister [Erdoğan at the time] was in favor of the idea of the state paying the company for illegally consumed electricity, given that the rate of unpaid electricity bills in the Southeast was as high as 60-70 percent

#Electricité #privatisation #PKK

Pro-Erdoğan businessman asks to exit major energy project
▻http://www.todayszaman.com/business_pro-erdogan-businessman-asks-to-exit-major-energy-project_3690

One of the partners of an electricity distribution company which serves 1.5 million subscribers in the Southeast on Tuesday asked the government to allow his firm to leave the partnership, lamenting large-scale illegal use of electricity in the region.

Abdullah Tivnikli, a businessman known for his close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Tuesday that he wants to exit his partnership with Dicle Electricity Distribution (DEDAŞ) in order to avoid further losses due to widespread illegal use of electricity in the area the company operates in. “I have to leave this partnership or we will be forced to have blackouts in the region to compensate for our losses,” Tivnikli was quoted as saying by Fox TV Turkey.

The İşkaya-Doğu Consortium, in which Tivnikli is a partner, won a tender for electricity distribution in the southeastern region with an offer of $387 million in 2013. DEDAŞ supplies electricity to the southeastern provinces of Batman, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Siirt, Şanlıurfa and Şırnak, where 75 percent of the population uses electricity illegally according to local sources. Tivnikli said his financial losses due to illegal usage amounted to TL 400 million a year. Around 350,000 subscribers in the region DEDAŞ covers fail to pay their electricity bills while 91,000 others pay less than TL 5 a month, Tivnikli told Fox TV.

The methods used by Tivnikli to compensate for losses sustained by the partnership have been a matter of discussion recently.

A suspect in a corruption probe that was made public in December 2013, Tivnikli was allegedly heard asking then-deputy undersecretary in the Prime Ministry İbrahim Kalın for reimbursement from the government for subscribers’ unpaid electricity bills, in a voice recording leaked on YouTube in April 2014. According to another voice recording leaked on Twitter, also in April of last year, Kalın told Tivnikli that the prime minister was in favor of the idea of the state paying the company for illegally consumed electricity, given that the rate of unpaid electricity bills in the Southeast was as high as 60-70 percent.

Tivnikli earlier last year admitted to having spoken to Kalın to get his help regarding the unpaid electricity bills. He also admitted to having paid school fees for Kalın’s daughter. Kalın is currently employed as Erdoğan’s spokesman.

#Electricité #Privatisation #Corruption #Kurdes

Illegal electricity usage in 2013 cost Turkish households TL 140 each
▻http://www.todayszaman.com/news-345963-illegal-electricity-usage-in-2013-cost-turkish-households-t

Illegal electricity usage in several southeastern Turkish provinces in 2013 led to a shortfall of TL 4.9 billion in national electricity bill receipts, a figure which was divided among the 35 million Turkish households registered with energy companies and led to an additional TL 140 cost per household last year, the Vatan daily reported on Wednesday.

Last year, the Turkish Electricity Distribution Company (TEDAŞ) concluded four privatization tenders, selling Dicle, Vangölü, Toroslar and İstanbul’s Anatolian Side electricity companies for a total of around $3.4 billion.

İşkaya-Doğu Consortium won the Dicle Electric Distribution A.Ş. (DEDAŞ) privatization tender with an offer of $387 million. Çalık Energy, Mes A.Ş.-İşkur A.Ş. Consortium and Fernas Construction were the other three bidders in the tender, which opened with a value of $226 million. DEDAŞ supplies electricity to the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa, Mardin, Batman, Siirt and Şırnak, where 71.4 percent of the population uses electricity illegally, leading to the TL 4.9 billion shortfall.

The methods used by pro-government Turkish businessman Abdullah Tivnikli, one of the partners in DEDAŞ, when financing the tender has been a matter of discussion in Turkish banking circles. Tivnikli had received loans from the bank Kuveyt Türk, where he is deputy board manager, to finance the energy privatization. Tivnikli owns 30 percent of shares in DEDAŞ. Observers have said that lending to his own firms would create non-performing loan problems in the long-term.

Another crucial factor in the very high shortfall is that according to Energy Ministry data, the electricity usage in the southeastern provinces increased by 24 percent between 2009-2013, reaching 19.3 billion kilowatts.

Speaking to Vatan daily, DEDAŞ spokesperson Mehmet Gökay Üstün said that only 4.6 billion kilowatts of total electricity consumption was paid for. “The total cost of the electricity usage amounted to TL 6.4 billion, including tax. But only TL 1.5 billion was paid. The rest, amounting to TL 4.9 billion, was paid by registered electricity subscribers nationwide,” said Üstün.

Üstün also stressed that after privatization, the rate of illegal electricity usage dropped by 1 percent, preventing a loss of almost TL 40 million.

During budget talks in Parliament in December last year, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız said that debts incurred by those who steal electricity in Turkey will be written off if they register as electricity users.

During his speech, Yıldız said that electricity piracy in Turkey needed to be reduced urgently. “We will get our citizens to start paying [for the electricity they use],” Yıldız said.

#Electricité
#Piratage
#Privatisation
#Turquie